Gene Sharp (born January 21, 1928) is the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.[3] He is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world.

Sharp was born in North Baltimore, Ohio,[2] the son of an itinerant Protestant minister.[15] He received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences in 1949 from Ohio State University, where he also received his Master of Arts in Sociology in 1951.[16] In 1953–54, Sharp was jailed for nine months after protesting the conscription of soldiers for the Korean War.[2] He discussed his decision to go to prison for his beliefs in letters to Albert Einstein who wrote a foreword to his first book, on Gandhi.[17] He worked as factory labourer, guide to a blind social worker, and secretary to A. J. Muste, America's leading pacifist. Between 1955 and 1958 he was Assistant Editor of Peace News (London) the weekly pacifist newspaper from where he helped organise the 1958 Aldermaston March. The next two years he studied and researched in Oslo with Professor Arne Næss, who derived together with Johan Galtung from Mohandas Gandhi's writings the Satyagraha Norms.[18] In 1968, he received a Doctor of Philosophy in political theory from Oxford University.[16]

Sharp's key theme is that power is not monolithic; that is, it does not derive from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power. For Sharp, political power, the power of any state – regardless of its particular structural organization – ultimately derives from the subjects of the state. His fundamental belief is that any power structure relies upon the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). If subjects do not obey, rulers have no power.

In Sharp's view, all effective power structures have systems by which they encourage or extract obedience from their subjects. States have particularly complex systems for keeping subjects obedient. These systems include specific institutions (police, courts, regulatory bodies), but may also involve cultural dimensions that inspire obedience by implying that power is monolithic (the god cult of the Egyptian pharaohs, the dignity of the office of the President, moral or ethical norms and taboos). Through these systems, subjects are presented with a system of sanctions (imprisonment, fines, ostracism) and rewards (titles, wealth, fame) which influence the extent of their obedience.

Sharp identifies this hidden structure as providing a window of opportunity for a population to cause significant change in a state. Sharp cites the insight of Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563), that if the subjects of a particular state recognize that they are the source of the state's power, they can refuse their obedience and their leader(s) will be left without power.

Sharp published Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential in 2005. It builds on his earlier written works by documenting case studies where nonviolent action has been applied, and the lessons learned from those applications, and contains information on planning nonviolent struggle to make it more effective.

For his lifelong commitment to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through scholarly analysis of the power of nonviolent action, The Peace Abbey of Sherborn, MA awarded him the Courage of Conscience award April 4, 2008.[25]

A feature documentary by Scottish director, Ruaridh Arrow, "How to Start a Revolution" about the global influence of Gene Sharp's work was released in September 2011. The film won "Best Documentary" and "The Mass Impact Award" at the Boston Film Festival in September 2011.[26] The European premiere was held at London's Raindance Film Festival on October 2, 2011 where it also won Best Documentary.[27] The film has been described as the unofficial film of the Occupy Wall St movement being shown in Occupy camps in cities all over the world. The film has been screened to MPs and Lords in the British Houses of Parliament and won a Scottish BAFTA award in April 2012. A How to Start a Revolution iPad app was released on the Apple app store on October 9, 2012 including the documentary and several Gene Sharp books.

Sharp has been called both the "Machiavelli of nonviolence"[21] and the "Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare."[28] It is claimed by some that Sharp's scholarship has influenced resistance organizations around the world. His works remain the ideological underpinning of the work for the Serbian-based nonviolent conflict training group the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies which helped to train the key activists in the protest movement that toppled President Mubarak of Egypt, and many other earlier youth movements in the Eastern Europeancolor revolutions.

"The bible of Pora has been the book of Gene Sharp, also used by Otpor!, it's called: From Dictatorship to Democracy. Pora activists have translated it by themselves. We have written to Mr Sharp and to the Albert Einstein Institute in the United States, and he became very sympathetic towards our initiative, and the Institution provided funding to print over 12,000 copies of this book for free."[31]

Sharp's writings on "Civilian-Based Defense"[32] were used by the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian governments during their separation from the Soviet Union in 1991. Lithuanian Defence Minister Audrius Butkevicius declared at the time, "I would rather have this book than the nuclear bomb".[17]

The Iranian government charged protesters against alleged fraud in the 2009 elections with following Gene Sharp's tactics. The Tehran Times reported: "According to the indictment, a number of the accused confessed that the post-election unrest was preplanned and the plan was following the timetable of the velvet revolution to the extent that over 100 stages of the 198 steps of Gene Sharp were implemented in the foiled velvet revolution."[33]

Coverage of Gene Sharp's influence in the Egyptian revolution produced a backlash from some Egyptian bloggers. One, journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy, stated that "Not only was Mubarak's foreign policy hated and despised by the Egyptian people, but parallels were always drawn between the situation of the Egyptian people and their Palestinian brothers and sisters. The latter have been the major source of inspiration, not Gene Sharp, whose name I first heard in my life only in February after we toppled Mubarak already and whom the clueless NYT moronically gives credit for our uprising."[38] Another, Egyptian writer and activist Karim Alrawi, argued that Gene Sharp's writings are more about regime change than revolution. He defines the latter as having an ethical as well as a material dimension that Sharp deliberately avoids engaging with, and credits local circumstances and the spark provided by the Tunisian revolution for the Egyptian success.[39]

However evidence and testimony from four different activist groups working in Egypt at the time of the revolution contradict these claims. Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian blogger and activist said that activists translated excerpts of Mr. Sharp's work into Arabic, and that his message of "attacking weaknesses of dictators" stuck with them.[40] Ahmed Maher a leader of the April 6 democracy group also stated in the How to Start a Revolution documentary, "Gene Sharp's books had a huge impact" among other influences.[41] the Associated Press reported as early as September 2010 more than four months before the revolution that Gene Sharp's work was being used by activists in Egypt close to political leader Mohammed El Baradei.[42] Finally The New York Times reported that Sharp's book From Dictatorship to Democracy had been posted by the Muslim Brotherhood on its website during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.[43]

Gene Sharp has consistently denied these claims and after a period of these sustained attacks in June 2008 notable left wing writers Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn among others defended Gene Sharp in a signed a letter which was circulated by U.S. and internationally based scholars and activists. An extract from this letter reads as follows:

"Rather than being a tool of imperialism, Dr. Sharp’s research and writings have inspired generations of progressive peace, labor, feminist, human rights, environmental, and social justice activists in the United States and around the world.The Albert Einstein Institution has never received any money from any government or government-funded entity. Nor does Dr. Sharp or the Albert Einstein Institution collaborate with the CIA, the NED, or any U.S. government or government-funded agencies; nor has Dr. Sharp or the Albert Einstein Institution ever provided financial or logistical support to any opposition groups in any country; nor has Dr. Sharp or the Albert Einstein Institution ever taken sides in political conflicts or engaged in strategic planning with any group.The Albert Einstein Institution operates with a very minimal budget out of Dr. Sharp’s home with a staff consisting of two people – Dr. Sharp and a young administrator – and is quite incapable of carrying out the foreign intrigues of which it has been falsely accused." [48]

Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression with the assistance of Jamila Raqib, First Edition, Boston, MA: The Albert Einstein Institution, November 2009. ISBN 978-1-88-081323-2. Accessible as an e-book.

^According to Gene Sharp's Preface to How Nonviolent Struggle Works (2013): "The present text is an extreme abridgement of the published The Politics of Nonviolent Action. The original condensation was prepared by Jaime Gonzalez Bernal in Spanish in Mexico and published as La Lucha Politica Nonviolenta.... in March 1988... The English language text here is primarily Mr. Glozalez Bernal's condensation returned to English. It has been evaluated and edited with the important assistance of Caridad Inda. She has made major contributions to this text from 1987 to this edition in 2013. I have made limited recent changes and additions to both the English and the Spanish texts and have changed the title to How Nonviolent Struggle Works" (pp. xi–xii).